Tag: inequality

4IR: The good, the bad and the inequality gap

4IR: The good, the bad and the inequality gap

On the brighter side, the Fourth Industrial Revolution will create many new jobs that do not exist today, says the writer. (Image: Franck V. / Unsplash) The Fourth Industrial Revolution is an unstoppable force that will have a profound impact on the world. While it will undoubtedly bring many benefits, we must beware it does not increase the already huge gulf between South Africa’s haves and have-nots.

Whether for good or bad, we are on the path of a technological revolution that is radically shaping the way in which we relate to the world and to one another. […]

Robots Will Take Jobs—Lots of Them—But May Not Be A Bogeymen

Robots Will Take Jobs—Lots of Them—But May Not Be A Bogeymen

It’s human nature for people to over-react to reports on trends, particularly in a divided time in America when everyone is looking for political or at least polemic fodder in every new study that comes out about how quickly life is changing.

Count reactions to the “robot revolution” among these extreme responses. Every week or so, it seems, an estimable think tank comes forth with a new prognostication about how the rise of robotics, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and other technological disruptions in manufacturing are going to ravage the global work force and unleash millions of new panhandlers […]

Plentiful jobs but slow growth: 10 facts about the expansion

FILE- In this June 12, 2019, file photo a man walks in downtown Miami. Ten straight years of growth. Unemployment at a five-decade low. Higher wages for the poorest workers. The economic expansion that just became America’s longest on record didn’t produce an especially fast pace of growth. It didn’t narrow the vast gap between the wealthiest Americans and everyone else. (Brynn Anderson, File/Associated Press) WASHINGTON — Ten straight years of growth. Unemployment at a five-decade low. Higher wages for the poorest workers.

The economic expansion that just became America’s longest on record didn’t produce an especially fast pace of […]

Oxford Economics: Robots are here and they are after your job

Oxford Economics: Robots are here and they are after your job

Although robots and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have boosted global productivity and economic growth, more than 2,030 manufacturing jobs now performed by humans will be lost to innovation in the coming decade, according to a new report released Wednesday (June 26) by United Kingdom’s Oxford Economics.

In a 64-page report entitled “How Robots Change the World,” Oxford CEO and Chief Economist Adrian Cooper said the robotics revolution is rapidly accelerating, as fast-paced technological advances in automation, engineering, energy storage, artificial intelligence, and machine learning converge. The result, Cooper concludes, will transform the capabilities of robots and their ability to take […]

The robots are definitely coming and will make the world a more unequal place

The robots are definitely coming and will make the world a more unequal place

So the robots are coming for our jobs, are they? Yawn. That’s such an old story. Goes back to Elizabeth I and the stocking frame, if my memory serves me right. Machines have been taking our jobs forever. But economists, despite their reputation as practitioners of the “dismal science”, have always been upbeat about that. Sure, machines destroy jobs, they say. But hey, the new industries that new technology enables create even more new jobs. Granted, there may be a bit of “disruption” between destruction and creation, but that’s just capitalist business as usual. Besides, it’s progress, innit?

We have […]

If there’s digital revolution happening, the Democratic presidential candidates seem mostly unaware

Plenty of American had probably never heard of Andrew Yang before last night’s Democratic presidential debate. Many were also probably unfamiliar with Yang’s big idea to pay a “ universal basic income ” to all Americans. And as he explained during the debate, “…this is the move we have to make particularly as technology is now automating away millions of American’s jobs.” REUTERS/Issei Kato Actually the automation threat is worse than that. Automation will affect something like, I dunno, 100% of jobs — at least in some way or another. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean mass unemployment. Just […]

Labor market impacts of digitalization and automation

Labor market impacts of digitalization and automation

Technological change will not lead to mass unemployment but to increasing inequality and labor market polarization

The past decades have been characterized by a tremendous rise in computing power, reducing the costs of automating so-called routine tasks which follow clear, explicit rules and can thus be put into computer code. This has led to a polarization of labor markets in advanced economies with declining shares of middle-paid, routine-intensive occupations and rising shares of both, high- and low-paid jobs.

While this computerization has not led to employment declines, the question whether this holds true for the effects of further technological advances […]

What does automation mean for our ongoing gender inequality?

What does automation mean for our ongoing gender inequality?

Recent trends and the broader history of technological change indicate that automation will usher in major shifts in labor markets over the next decade, displacing millions of workers but also creating millions of new jobs that require new skills.

The McKinsey Global Institute, having documented these changes for several years, has produced a new report examining how automation might affect men and women differently.

A key conclusion of the study is that persistent gender disparities in the workplace, as documented in a previous MGI report, will make it more difficult for women than for men to adapt to the coming changes […]

Our misplaced fear of job-stealing robots

Our misplaced fear of job-stealing robots

Image: Shutterstock Some good news: The robots aren’t coming for your job. Experts say fears that rapid advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation will leave all of us unemployed are vastly overstated.

But concerns over growing inequality and the lack of opportunity for many in the labor force — serious matters linked to a variety of structural changes in the economy — are well-founded and need to be addressed, four scholars on artificial intelligence and the economy recently told an audience at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

That’s not to say that artificial intelligence isn’t having a profound effect […]

Warning millions of jobs to be lost to robots by 2030 – ‘There are NO jobs for life’

Warning millions of jobs to be lost to robots by 2030 - ‘There are NO jobs for life’

According to a new study from Oxford Economics, a rise in artificial intelligence will result in an increase in “income inequality” as they estimate 20 million manufacturing jobs will be lost in the next 11 years. In China alone, there could be 14 million robots taking work currently done by humans by 2030. In the European Union, as many as two million jobs will be replaced by robots. While in the United States, more than 1.5 million workers would have lost their employment to technology by 2030. Amazon SHOCK: Retailer begins replacing humans with MACHINES

Artificial Intelligence: AI […]